This invention relates to board games in which a move is done by indicating a point on the board, and the state of the game is expressed in the state of the points. These include traditional games like Go, but also large number of other potential games, puzzles and exercises. The invention presents an electronic board to play these games, and a new family of games to play on it.
Games like Go are played by each player, in his turn, adding a pebble to the board, on one of the points in a grid of lines drawn on the board, or in one of the squares on the board. These games have the advantages of being based on simple playing acts and being interesting intellectually. Their disadvantages are:
1) They require somewhat tricky movement when putting the stone on the board in the right place without disturbing other stones.
2) They tend to suffer from delays when a player is thinking on a move.
3) Some of the moves require additional xe2x80x98housekeepingxe2x80x99 operations, e.g. taking stones of the board in Go.
4) The players need to keep the rules and do the counting of stones themselves, which puts extra demand on the players.
5) The stones are separate objects, which are easily lost.
6) It is not possible to play games where the arrangement of occupied points is changed periodically.
Disadvantages 3-6 can be solved by programming a computer to display the board and stones. The program would be simple enough that it can be put on a small and cheap CPU, and hence be built into a standalone playing board. In principle, the computer could also limit the time allocated to each player, thus solving disadvantage 2.
The problem of input (disadvantage 1), however, is not solved so well by current electronic systems. That is because input for existing electronic systems is normally done through buttons, or other devices, which are separated from the display. For games where there is a small repertoire of possible different inputs this is acceptable, but for board games there are many possible different inputs (the number of points in the grid). Inputting a point on buttons off the display requires the players to perform some mental operation to convert the point they think about to the right input. This is relatively slow and error-prone process. For slow-going games that is very annoying but may be acceptable, but it makes it impossible to play fast on these systems, and for most people this is a decisive factor.
This disadvantage can be overcome by a making an interactive board in which the input and the display are together, and these kinds of boards started to appear, at least as patent applications. However, the range of the games that can be played on these boards is still limited.
For over 30 years, computer scientists and mathematicians were investigating the behaviour of what is called the game of life, which was invented by John Conway. The game of life is not really a game, because there is no task that any player tries to perform. Instead, it is a phenomenon that is being investigated. It is executed by a computer on a square grid of cells, each of which can be in an ON or OFF state. A pattern of cells is set in the ON state and the rest of the cells in the OFF state, and then the pattern evolves in according to some rule, which specifies which cell is in the ON state in each instant according to the state of the cell and the state of its eight neighbouring cells in the previous instance. The resulting patterns are interesting enough to be a subject of investigation.
The current invention describes a simple interactive board and a novel family of games which draw on the basic idea behind game of life which can be played on the board.
The conceptual structure of the hardware of the board is sketched in FIG. 1.
According to the current invention the user accessible part of the board is made of grid points 1 and 2 which are arranged in a grid on a flat surface 6. Each grid point is a clearly visible element 1 which can detect when it is pressed, and can be illuminated in at least two colours by an illumination source 2 in or below the surface. The figure shows only 3 grid points for clarity, but the actual board has many more grid points (typically 36-1000). The figure also shows the illumination source 2 separately from the visible part of the grid point 1, which denotes the fact that pressing a grid point does not affect its illumination. All the grid points are connected to a games manager 3, which is a CPU+memory+software. When a grid point is pressed, the games manager 3 is notified (arrows from the visible part 1 to the games manager 3), and the games manager 3 controls which sources of illumination are on (arrows from the games manager 3 to the sources of illumination 2). The games manager is programmed to manage various games. Managing a game means that the board displays the state of the game by putting on the appropriate sources of illumination 2. When a sensor 1 is pressed, the games manager computes the implication according the rules of the current game, and chances some of the sources of illumination 2 (possibly none) to reflect the new state of the game. The board may also change which sources of illumination are on when no point is pressed. This board can be used to implement many games. Some of these games are variations of a family of games which will be called here the Life games. The basic rules of a life game are: every fixed period of time (generation) the games manager checks for each point the illumination state of the point and of a pattern of points around it, and accordingly decides what will be the illumination state of the point in the next generation. The player(s) can also affect the illumination state of a point by pressing it, and the task of the player(s) is to keep some points illuminated as long as possible, cause all the points to be unilluminated as fast as possible, or cause all illuminated points to be only in one colour.
To allow the users to utilise all the functionality of the board, it will need a control area 4, which allows the players to change the current game, change the rules of the current game and change other parameters, like the length of time that each player has to perform his move. The control area 4 also displays the current score of the game. Typically, the control area will contain few control buttons and an alphanumeric display. The games manager receives information from the control area about which control buttons were pressed, and controls what is displayed in the alphanumeric display.
The basic functionality of the games manager comprises these actions:
1) When the users indicate through the control area 4 that they want to change the current game or any of the parameters of the current game, the game manager sets its own internal state to the new value, and indicates to the users the new value.
2) When one of the grid points is pressed and the current game and parameters make it illegal for the current player to press some of the points, the games manager checks if the pressed point is allowed according to the rules and parameters of the current game and the current state of the game (i.e. which points are illuminated). If the pressed point is not allowed, the games board may issue some indication that an illegal point was pressed, may indicate why it is not allowed by some message through the control area 4, and may indicate which points are allowed (e.g. by flashing them). Note that illuminated points, while typically are not allowed, may be allowed in some games.
3) When a point is pressed and it is allowed according to the current rules, parameters and state of the game, the games manager computes the implications and then changes the illumination of some (possibly zero) points to reflect the new state of the game. Note that:
a) While typically the point that is pressed changes its illumination, this is not mandatory.
b) Other points except the pressed point may change as well.
4) If the rules of the current game require it, the games manager changes the illumination of some points even when none of the points is pressed, typically once each some time period (or xe2x80x98generationxe2x80x99).
5) After each change to the illumination of any grid point, the games manager computes the current score and displays it using the control area 4.
6) After each change to the illumination of any grid point, the games manager checks, using a game-specific routine, if the game is finished. If the game is finished, the games manager indicates it, typically by some message in the control area 4, and maybe other additional signals.
The board will also need a way to signal whose turn it is, which would typically be done by two turn lights 5, which are in two separate colours, corresponding to two of the colours of the illumination in the grid points. The games manager controls these turn lights, and signal to the players whose turn it is by switching the corresponding turn light.
The arrangement of the grid points would be in most cases square as in FIGS. 3 and 4, but can also be of different shapes (e.g. hexagonal (as shown in FIG. 5), triangular or less regular). The overall shape of the board would typically be square, but can also vary, e.g. a jagged-edge rectangle as in FIG. 5.
The kind of games that the board will be programmed to play include (but not restricted to):
1) Traditional two-person games like Go, where each player is associated with one colour.
2) Novel two-person games.
3) Puzzles and single-player games.
4) Fluid games, which means games where the patterns of illuminated points changes even when the player(s) don""t press any point, like Life games which are described here.
5) Memory games.
Because of the basic rule of changing illumination in each generation, the illumination pattern of the board tends to change each generation, though there are some exceptional patterns that do not change. The novelty in this invention is the combination of this idea with the grid board and interaction with the user, to produce a family of games.
In general, the actual rule to determines which point is illuminated can be any of large possible rules, and there is no obvious way to decide what is a good rule to use. The main requirements of the rule are:
1) It causes interesting changes in the pattern of illumination.
2) It is not too xe2x80x98strongxe2x80x99, in the sense that the players need to be able to affect the illumination pattern in a desired way by pressing few points.
Additional possible requirement is that it is simple enough that the players can analyse the game, but this is not necessary, as players can use their intuition or simply guesses to play and still enjoy the game. The rules that are used in the example, which are based on counting how many of the closest 8 points are illuminated, are simple and give interesting games. The rule that is used in Life1 is probably the most commonly used rule in the investigation of game of life, while the rule in Life2 is novel. It is expected that different rules will be developed in the future. In particular, boards with different arrangements of points will probably require different rules for interesting games.
The task of the player(s) can be one of:
1) Switch off all the points as fast as possible.
2) keep at least some points illuminated as long as possible.
3) When the game is between two players, one player tries to get points illuminated in one colour to dominate the board.
It is possible to add other kinds of tasks. For example, see the xe2x80x98groupsxe2x80x99 counting in Life1 (p. 7).